Esa Chica Es Mia

In the apartment building where I live there’s a girl. She is kind of young. About 15 or 16. I noticed her family moving in about 2 or so years ago.

Not so long ago, when I was starting my “bicycle project” Remember the pictures of the bicycle? She suddenly appeared and started talking to me. I was in the parking lot of the building working, so I don‘t know where she came from. That day she helped me sand away the rust from some parts of my old bicycle. Since that day she got a little closer to me. We became kind of friends, but one day, without any notice or anything, she just stopped talking to me at all. She would not say “Hi” like she always did. And today I think I know why.

A series of events took place that kind of got my attention, but never really gave them a lot of importance.

The first one happened before she stopped talking to me, but after the “bicycle incident”. One day I got home early from work. I was pulling up to the parking lot of the building, where I park my motorcycle. I noticed her and her cousin, who is kind of her same age, were playing there. Well, the kids were playing with a ball, and the girls were just hanging out near my parking spot. I came into the parking lot and then backed my motorcycle up. I stopped the motor and while still on the bike, I took the helmet off. I noticed she was looking at me. So I smiled, looked into her eyes, and asked her “How are you?”

She was still looking into my eyes, and instead of saying something like “I’m fine” “she just nodded nervously with her mouth half open and half smiling. I waited for her to say something, but instead she just kept talking to her cousin. Didn’t give her a lot of attention, so I locked my bike and went up to my apartment.

Weeks went by. One Saturday afternoon I was playing my guitar sitting on the stairs of the building…the ones near my apartment. I hear someone’s door opened. It turned out to be the girl and her cousin, who just decided to hang out on the stairs too, but not the ones where I was, but the ones near her apartment…on the other side of the hallway. I’m playing, well, I was trying to play my guitar when I hear the girl’s cousin say “Hi” and waved at me. I said “Hi” back. 5 or so minutes later I hear the girls walking toward me. They said they just wanted to say “Hi”. We all talked for some minutes and then they left. I didn’t think much of it because most of the kids always just come to say “Hi” when I’m out trying to play my guitar.

One night I was walking down the hallway heading to the parking lot, I was going fishing. I see the girl sitting on the stairs doing her homework. I said “Hi”, but she didn’t answer. I asked if she was mad at me. She didn’t smiled and said “No”. I thought she was having a bad day. Later she would still talk to me one more time, when I was waiting outside my building waiting for S to go to a party. She, her cousin, and her many more younger cousins were out playing outside too. Out of no where she walked up to me and said “No, I’m not mad” and smiled. Before I had a chance to say something, she walked away. By then I knew something wasn’t right.

2 or so weeks ago, I came home from fishing one night. She and her relatives were playing “wrestling” in the middle of the hallway, so they didn’t hear me come. When they did, everyone cleared the way. As I was walking I was greeting all the kids, for some reason, they all talk to me, and I’m not the kind of person who doesn’t say “Hi” back. By then I was used to walking near the girl and not saying “Hi” or looking at her because she would not do the same. I noticed the girl’s cousin, the one who is her same age, smiling and looking at her as if there were an inside joke going on. I turned to the girl to see what she was doing, to my surprise, she is just standing there, with a serious expression on her face, hands behind her back and looking at the floor. I turned back to the cousin, still smiling and looking at her. Right then I knew something was going on with this girl. The latest and most revealing event took place less than a week ago.

She and her family live a couple of doors down the hallway from my apartment. So, it is common to run into her or her mother, father, or brother. Last Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I came out of my door to the hallway with the turkey, I was taking it to the car parked in the back of the building, I see her and her mother outside their door too. I’m walking with the turkey in my hands and as I get closer to them, I noticed she saw me. She then quickly turned away and gave me her back. She was facing her mother. I’m thinking to myself “Mmm…weird”. When I passed in front of them I greeted her mother like I always do every time I see her, but the girl just went into her apartment when I stopped and talked to her mom. I left the turkey in the car and went up to my apartment. They weren’t there anymore.

Last night as I was heading to my apartment and was walking up the stairs, for some reason a song came to my mind. It was “Esa Chica Es Mia” by Sergio Dalma. Suddenly it hit me: This girl has a crush on me. For one, she is doing all the things the song talks about, you know, first getting close and then without any reason, being distant and cold; acting as if they didn’t like you. Don’t believe what I’m saying? Go ahead and Youtube that song.

It is not that she is doing the things the song talks about, but now I understand why there would be these weird silences every now and then when we talked, and why she would talk so much about her personal life. Sometimes a simple “Hello” would be enough to have her by my side when I was in the parking lot waxing my motorcycle.

This girl is pretty, and she will be really hot when she grows up, however she is just too young for me. I don’t know what to do now. Should I keep trying to talk to her? Or should I ignore her as I have been doing? The thing is I don’t want to send the wrong message. I don’t want to “be” with her, but at the same time, I don’t want her to be cold and distant, as if I had done something to make her upset. Why can’t she be a normal kid that says “Hi” every time we run into each other?